It is only a short time since the AGM when I took over as Chairman but we already seem to have built up a good head of steam for the new association year. 

I am particularly pleased that, at the AGM we had five new volunteers to go on the committee, taking our total up to seventeen.  This is a tremendous help to the existing stalwarts on the committee - many hands…. etc.  However, there is no limit to the number we can have on the committee so if any of you reading this are interested in becoming involved, please contact me or any of the committee members listed on the back page of this newsletter.  Our meetings are on the second Tuesday of each month, in St Austin's Hall and any resident is welcome to attend, particularly if you have an issue to raise.
   
For those of you who are not familiar with our work and for those who were not able to attend the AGM, I thought I would take the opportunity to let you know something of our current plans and activities.

As many of you know, the WPRA is one of the largest and most active Residents' Associations in Merton.  Recently the Association has turned its attention to the idea of 'regeneration' of Wimbledon Park - in particular the shopping parade in Arthur Road. We feel that the business community, which is largely focused in Arthur Road, is a key part of our community and it is in all our interests to support those small businesses and to help them wherever possible to improve their sustainability.

At our AGM we were pleased to welcome, as a speaker, Ian Cramp, the new Town Centre manager for Wimbledon, who spoke about his experiences in building business communities.  His past activities involved much larger business communities than our own but, nevertheless, he passed on some very practical and useful ideas that we can incorporate into our own plans.

As a first step we are trying to encourage the formation of a local traders association.